Former MLB player Danny Murphy of Beverly, St. John's Prep denied pension benefits as a pre-1980 player

By Douglas J. Gladstone

Thursday

Nov 9, 2017 at 4:54 PMNov 9, 2017 at 5:36 PM

I don't know Beverly native Daniel Francis Murphy. Never met him, never had a chat with him, never even knew of him until recently. In fact, what little I do know about Mr. Murphy, who attended St. John’s Prep in Danvers, is attributable to his write-up in Baseball-Almanac.com.

Oh, he was also profiled in a June 1960 issue of Sports Illustrated. But you probably already knew that.

He was a star then. He would have probably eclipsed the fame of the Washington Nationals’ current second baseman Daniel Murphy if it wasn’t for one important thing.

He didn’t fare well in The Show. From 1960 to 1962, the Chicago Cubs outfielder with all that promise had a difficult time hitting big league pitching. In 117 games, he went 23-for-130. That’s a batting average even below the Mendoza line.

So he spent the next six years in the minors. To his credit, he recast himself as a pitcher.

This was like the Babe Ruth story, only in reverse.

He wasn’t Cy Young, but he was serviceable.

In 68 games for the Chicago White Sox during the 1969 and 1970 seasons, Murphy won four games and saved nine others in 112 innings.

That would be the end to a feel good story if it weren’t for one small detail.

Murphy is one of 500 players who have played in the big leagues that don’t receive a Major League Baseball [MLB] pension.

Mr. Murphy and all the other retired players are in this position, because of something that occurred during Memorial Day weekend in 1980. To avert a threatened players' strike, the league offered the union representing the current players, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), the following sweetheart deal: Moving forward, all a player would need was one game day to qualify for health insurance coverage and 43 game days of service to qualify for a pension.

The problem was that the union never insisted on retroactivity for all the players like Murphy, who played prior to 1980.

So all Mr. Murphy has been receiving since 2011 is a non-qualified retirement payment of $625 per quarter, up to 16 quarters, or a maximum payment of $10,000. And that’s before taxes are taken out.

Oh and get this, the league and union are so cheap, when Murphy, now 75, eventually passes none of his loved ones will receive a plug nickel from MLB.

Murphy and his family and friends should be angry and upset with both the league and the union.

According to the IRS, a vested retiree can receive up to $210,000. Even a post-1980 player who was only on a roster for 43 game days is reportedly receiving a yearly pension of $34,000.

And Mr. Murphy clearly had more service credit than a mere 43 game days.

To date, the MLBPA has been loath to divvy up any more of the collective pie. Even though Forbes recently reported that the current players’ pension and welfare fund is valued at $2.7 billion, MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark has never commented about these non-vested retirees, many of whom are filing for bankruptcy at advanced ages, having banks foreclose on their homes and are so sickly and poor that they cannot afford adequate health care coverage.

Factor in those six years in the minors, and Murphy has his pension. That’s why MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Clark need to consider changing the rule book, so that minor league service starts being considered pension creditable.

A freelance writer based in New York, Douglas J. Gladstone has been published in multiple newspapers, magazines and websites. He is also the author of two books, including "A Bitter Cup of Coffee; How MLB & The Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve."